The need for a critical approach to Critical and Speculative Design

…”So answering [designer James] Auger’s pressing question — “What is this obsession with class systems?” —, well: we are obsessed with class systems because we can’t help it. Because, in contrast to most of the practitioners in the field of [Speculative and Critical Design], we do not have the privilege of not thinking about issues of race, class and gender.”

Because your dystopia is happening to us, right now. It’s happening when we get harassed because of our gender, our class or our ethnicity. It’s happening when a brazilian citizen is killed by british police with no explanation, apology or reason other than being a foreigner. It’s happening because where we come from, the reality suggested by The Republic of Salivation isn’t so far-fetched. And because if we don’t call out your privilege — though you dismiss it as “misguided suggestions of privilege” — this is what will keep on happening: [Speculative and Critical Design] will never evolve past a discipline stuck in its own little universe of weather forecasts and smart fridges, incapable of seeing how shallow its own speculations are, and how much more relevant and inclusive they could be.” (Luiza Prado de O. Martins. Cowritten by: Pedro Oliveira)